---
title: Proverbs 15:13 (JPS 1917) — A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance; but by sorrow of heart… · tree and pragmatics
description: A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance; but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken. Who acts: merry heart, sorrow, heart. Proverbs 15:13 in JPS 1917 with its dependency tree and the pragmatics of every clause.
---

<!-- md -->
[Mova](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) · [this page in HTML](https://mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.423/)

<!-- crumbs -->
[home](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/) / [corpora](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/) / [Tanakh](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/tanakh/) / [Ketuvim](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/) / [Proverbs](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO/) / [chapter 15](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO/15/) / [15:13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.15.13/) / JPS 1

# Proverbs 15:13 · JPS 1917

<!-- .ven lang=en -->
A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance; but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.

<!-- .vintro -->
**Who acts:** merry heart, sorrow, heart · **What happens:** make, break, sorrow · **To what, where:** cheerful countenance, spirit

<!-- .vabout -->
This is Proverbs 15:13 · JPS 1917 in the English of the Jewish Publication Society's 1917 translation, from Mova's open Bible corpus. The page gives the sentence's syntax tree — a dependency tree in the style of Universal Dependencies, parsed by Mova and checked by a teacher model — and its pragmatics clause by clause: who acts (merry heart, sorrow, heart), what happens, when and where, as Mova's frames read it. The original of the verse links back to its own tree and to the Targum.

## The tree {#tree}

```conllu
# sent_id = jps:PRO:423
# text = A merry heart maketh a cheerful countenance; but by sorrow of heart the spirit is broken.
1	A	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	3	det	_	_
2	merry	merry	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	3	amod	_	_
3	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	nsubj	_	_
4	maketh	make	VERB	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Style=Arch|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	0	root	_	_
5	a	a	DET	DT	Definite=Ind|PronType=Art	7	det	_	_
6	cheerful	cheerful	ADJ	JJ	Degree=Pos	7	amod	_	_
7	countenance	countenance	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	4	obj	_	_
8	;	;	PUNCT	:	_	17	punct	_	_
9	but	but	CCONJ	CC	_	17	cc	_	_
10	by	by	ADP	IN	_	11	case	_	_
11	sorrow	sorrow	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	obl	_	_
12	of	of	ADP	IN	_	13	case	_	_
13	heart	heart	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	11	nmod	_	_
14	the	the	DET	DT	Definite=Def|PronType=Art	15	det	_	_
15	spirit	spirit	NOUN	NN	Number=Sing	17	nsubj:pass	_	_
16	is	be	AUX	VBZ	Mood=Ind|Number=Sing|Person=3|Tense=Pres|VerbForm=Fin	17	aux:pass	_	_
17	broken	break	VERB	VBN	Tense=Past|VerbForm=Part|Voice=Pass	4	conj	_	_
18	.	.	PUNCT	.	_	4	punct	_	_
```

## Pragmatics {#pragmatics}

<!-- sa -->
- form: statement
- act: narrate
- voice: narrator
- polarity: none
- teacher: kept the draft

<!-- .fr -->
| # | verb | tense, mood | who | what, whom | to whom | where | when | other | roles by |
| --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- | --- |
| 1 | **make** | present | a merry heart | a cheerful countenance |  |  |  |  | vn build-26.1-1 «NP.asset V NP»: agent=Asset countenance=Product |
| 2 | **break** | present · passive | sorrow of heart | the spirit |  |  |  |  | vn hurt-40.8.3-1-1 «NP V NP»: agent=Experiencer subject=Patient |
| 3 | **sorrow** |  | heart |  |  |  |  |  | nom sorrow «feeling intransitive»: of=agent |

<!-- .note -->
One row per clause the reader finds. «not said here»: a role filled from the clause above. «roles by»: a VerbNet class and frame when one fits the verb, else the reader's rules on the tree.

## The Hebrew of this verse {#hebrew}

<!-- .vhe dir=rtl lang=hbo -->
לֵ֣ב שָׂ֭מֵחַ יֵיטִ֣ב פָּנִ֑ים וּבְעַצְּבַת־לֵ֝ב ר֣וּחַ נְכֵאָֽה׃

[Proverbs 15:13: the Hebrew tree, its pragmatics and the Targum →](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.15.13/)

<!-- div src -->

**Source.** The Holy Scriptures according to the Masoretic Text, Jewish Publication Society, 1917, from eBible.org: public domain. Sentence `jps:PRO:423` of Mova's parse database.

**The tree and the speech act** come from Mova's cycle: the small model's draft, read by a large model as teacher, passed by Mova's gates (Elamur Cosmic License). **The frames** are read from the tree by Mova's frames reader (`prag`) when this page is built, the chapter read in order, so a pronoun may be resolved from an earlier sentence of the chapter.

<!-- /div -->

<!-- pn -->
- ← previous: [Proverbs 15:12 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.422/)
- next →: [Proverbs 15:14 (JPS)](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/jps/PRO.424/)
- ↑ back to [Proverbs 15:13](https://md.mova.elamur.ai/free/en/corpora/ketuvim/PRO.15.13/)